Sax van der Weyden, Megan N and Kearney, James W and Cortes, Nelson and Fernandes, Orlando and Martin, Joel R (2023) Common law enforcement load carriage systems have limited acute effects on postural stability and muscle activity. Applied Ergonomics, 113. p. 104091. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2023.104091
Sax van der Weyden, Megan N and Kearney, James W and Cortes, Nelson and Fernandes, Orlando and Martin, Joel R (2023) Common law enforcement load carriage systems have limited acute effects on postural stability and muscle activity. Applied Ergonomics, 113. p. 104091. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2023.104091
Sax van der Weyden, Megan N and Kearney, James W and Cortes, Nelson and Fernandes, Orlando and Martin, Joel R (2023) Common law enforcement load carriage systems have limited acute effects on postural stability and muscle activity. Applied Ergonomics, 113. p. 104091. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2023.104091
Abstract
Law enforcement officers are inherently at a high risk of injury and the loads they must carry during their occupational duties further increase their injury risk. It is unknown how different methods of carrying a law enforcement officer's load influence factors related to injury risk. This study assessed the effects of common law enforcement load carriage systems on muscular activity and postural stability while standing. Twenty-four participants performed single and dual-task (i.e. concurrent performance of cognitive tasks) standing while wearing a duty belt, tactical vest, and no load. The postural stability and muscle activity were measured and effects of condition and task examined. Dual task standing decreased postural stability and increased muscular activity. The belt and vest (7.2 kg each) increased muscle activity compared to control for the right abdominals, low back, right thigh. The duty belt resulted in less muscle activity in the right abdominals but more muscle activity in the left multifidus compared to the control. The findings indicate that common law enforcement load carriage systems increase muscular activity but do not affect postural stability. However, the lack of differences between the duty belt and tactical vest did not provide clear support for one load carriage system versus the other.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | Work performance; Risk factors; Police |
Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health Faculty of Science and Health > Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences, School of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 24 Jul 2023 16:45 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2024 16:04 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/35950 |
Available files
Filename: JERG-D-23-00054_R2.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0